At 08:30 Sunday morning Hope Valley firefighters were requested into the Carolina section of Richmond for a reported structure fire at the Meadowbrook Waldorf School. Richmond-Carolina fire Chief Scott Barber (Car 601) arrived on scene as the first due officer reporting a working fire, and requesting 5 additional tankers to the scene. While companies forced entry and started opening up the ceiling, where the fire was, it became evident that the fire had a significant head start on firefighters. For almost an hour crews operated interior opening ceilings, extinguishing fire, and opening the roof. While the roof was being cut crews witnessed a large HVAC unit collapse through the roof, forcing them to get off the roof. At this time command requested all unit go into defensive operations till all companies could be accounted for. Through the operation an all call to all Southern Rhode Island fire departments was put out bringing more than 200 firefighters to the scene.